“Please.”
I shook loose my arm. “Remember you’re a Naval officer, Mr. Carr.” He meant well, but a midshipman must know better than to touch his Captain, no matter how many vacations they’d taken together. Sometimes Derek had no sense of propriety.
The three sailors were suited and waiting. We cycled through the lock and clambered into the gig.”Open the hatch, Vax,” I said into my suit radio.
“Right, sir.” I jumped; his voice was loud in the speaker.
All seamen were given a modicum of training on small boats; I gestured to a sailor I knew had additional experience.
“Go ahead, Mr. Howard. Take us across.”
A couple of squirts sent us gently out the hatch. We glided across the void. From Hibernia’sbridge, the distance to Tel-starseemed small, but from the tiny gig it was immense. We neared the silent ship.
“Steer past the disk, Mr. Howard.” At negligible speed we drifted past the rent in the fabric of Telstar’shull. The edges of the tear appeared to have melted and run. What could have generated so much heat? “What’s the radiation reading, Mr. Brant?”
The sailor held the rad meter steady.” None, sir. Nothing at all.” Odd. If Telstar’sdrive had blown, we’d find substantial emissions.
When the trouble arose, Telstar’sdrive couldn’t have been ignited, or we’d never have found her in normal space. Telstarhad Defused at the usual checkpoint, as we ourselves had, to plot position before proceeding past Hope Nation to Miningcamp. With a six percent variation for error, that meant she could have Defused anywhere within eight million miles of where we’d emerged. Pure luck that we’d stumbled upon her.If Telstar’sdrive was turned off, what could have vaporized her hull? I had no answer. Whatever it was, we had to know, lest the same happen to us or other vessels in the fleet. I remembered Darla’s glitch and shivered. “Mr. Howard, take us to within a meter of the hull. Mr. Brant, open the hatch and get another reading up close.”
A moment later Brant put down the rad meter. “Still nothing, sir. The hull isn’t hot.”
“It could have been hull stress, sir.”
I jumped. “Damn it, Vax, lower your voice before you give me a heart attack. And that’s no stress fracture. We’ll see what we find inside.”
I had Mr. Brant transfer to Telstar’shull. He planted a magnetic buoy from our gig at his feet, activated it, hooked our mooring line to it. Now, if one of us pushed against the boat as he stepped off, the gig couldn’t drift away and leave us stranded.
We climbed out onto Telstar’shull. Her locks were sealed from within; the simplest way to board was to drop through the gaping hole into one of the cabins. The edges of the tear were rounded and smooth, minimizing the risk of ripping our tough-skinned suits.
“You first, Mr. Ulak. Take a light with you.” The seaman jumped down through the hole, into Telstar.“What do you see?”
“Just a mess.” He opened the cabin hatch, peered into the corridor. “Come on down, sir. We can walk around easy enough.”
“Be careful, sir.” Vax sounded anxious.
I climbed into the opening in the hull and jumped down.
I was in a passenger cabin.
Everything loose had been swept out in the decompression.
A bed remained, bolted to the deck. A sheet drooped forlornly from one corner. I swallowed.
“Vax, we’re on Level 2. The corridors are dark, but we all have lights. Mr. Brant, explore Level 2. Mr. Howard, Mr.
Ulak, go down to the engine room; see if you can figure out what caused the damage. Vax, it doesn’t look like any of the disk sections are sealed. I’ll go up to Level 1 and try to get onto the bridge.”
“Take one of the men with you, sir.”
“Don’t nag, Mother.”
I clambered along the debris-strewn corridor. Flotsam flung about by the decompression had settled everywhere, making the ship seem grossly untidy. I walked slowly, checking hatches as I went. Many were closed, but none were sealed from inside. I climbed the ladder to Level 1.
I passed the wardroom, then the lieutenants’ common room. The hatch was slightly ajar. I opened it, stuck my head in.”Oh, Lord God!” My scream echoed in my suit. I flung out my arms, stumbled back in terror.
“Captain! What is it?” Vax was frantic.
I gagged, swallowing in a frantic effort to hold down my gorge. “Unh! God. I’m all right, Vax. A corpse. Somebody in a suit, with a smashed helmet. The head is damaged, like it was eaten away. Something must have penetrated the helmet.” It had been inches from my nose.
I breathed deeply over and again, in an effort to slow my pounding heart. The adrenaline had left me trembling. I sagged against the bulkhead, steadying myself. “Sorry.”
“Let me come across, sir!”
/’Denied. Stay on the bridge. I’m all right; I just got a fright.” I headed for Telstar’sbridge. “I’m trying to figure out what happened here. Right now I’m about ninety degrees along the disk from the damage.” If I kept talking, I wouldn’t have to think about what I’d seen. “The cabin where I found the corpse had no hull damage. I guess something ricocheted down the corridor and hit him just as he opened the hatch.
Okay, I’m at the bridge now.”
I slapped the hatch control, to no effect. “The bridge is sealed; I’ll never be able to get in without tools. I’ll check the remaining cabins past the corridor bend.” A figure moved in the dim standby light. “Mr. Ulak, is that you?” I hurried toward him. “What did you find belo--”
I froze.
“Captain?” Vax.
My mouth worked. No sound came.
“Sir, are you all right?”
I produced a small whimper, like a child in a nightmare.
Urine trickled down my leg.
“Say what’s wrong!” Vax bellowed.
I whispered,”Ulak. Brant. Howard. Back to the gig, flank! Mr. Holser, sound General Quarters! Battle Stations!”
I tried to back away. My feet seemed glued to the deck.
The figure in the corridor quivered. It wore a kind of translucent suit that sat legless on the deck, flowing from an irregular base to near my own height.
Globs of matter seemed to flow along the skin of the suit.
A jagged patch on the suit, a meter above the deck, contracted and expanded again. Colors flowed.
I willed myself to step backward. “There’s something here! It’s alive and it’s not human.” Why did I whisper when nothing could hear through vacuum? I took another step.
“Lord God... “ We ask thy mercy, in this our final hour.“General Quarters! Man your Battle Stations!” Vax bellowed orders into the caller. “Mr. Carr, seal the bridge!”
The creature moved. I couldn’t see how. It... flowed toward me. I took another step back, then another.
It moved again. It changed shape as it flowed, then regained height. It seemed subtly changed.
Suddenly I understood.
“Oh, Lord God, it isn’t in a suit! That’s its own skin; it can live in vacuum! Vax, it’s changing shapes!” A surge of adrenaline freed me to move. The creature darted away, heading the opposite direction along the corridor. It moved with breathtaking speed.
I turned and ran. “Ulak, Brant! Where are you?”
“Back at the gig, sir! Hurry!”
I stumbled down the ladder, the steps pulling at my magnetized feet.
“Howard reporting. I’m in the gig. Where is it, sir?”
“I don’t know!” Panting, I pounded down the corridor. I risked a glance backward. Nothing.
“Oh, Jesus Lord! It’s coming out of the hull!” A shriek.
“Launch the gig!” I shouted. “Back to the ship! Don’t wait!”